Living The Dream

by Kickass222urmom

Falling into place slowly

The sound of a book slamming shut woke Twilight up, causing her to let out a little yelp of surprise as she fell out of her chair.

“And that’s the entire comprehensive history of what happened to Louie’s first set of children,” Babel said loudly, a wide smile on her face as she waited for Twilight to say something.

Twilight blinked a few times, still coming to her senses after waking up, so she forced out the most she could, “that’s neat.”

“It is neat!” Babel exclaimed as she suddenly let out a yawn. “I’m so sorry, Twilight, but I’ve been awake for forty eight hours, so I need a micro nap.”

“Yeah, go for-” Twilight began to say, but Babel suddenly collapsed, snoring loudly as she laid on the floor in a position that couldn't be comfortable.

She began to use her magic to try and move her to a couch or something, but Nightstreak stopped her quickly.

“Don’t do that!” he hissed, slowly pulling Twilight back to the living room. “She does that all the time, just let her take her nap wherever she falls and she’ll be up and about here soon.”

“That can’t be healthy,” Twilight commented, getting a laugh out of Nightstreak.

“Back to work,” he said as they came to a stop before the device, “how much longer do you need?”

With a sigh she sat down, using her magic to lift the device back up, “Just a few more hours.”

“Sweet,” he said with a nod as he took a step back and sat down on a chair. “Once you’re done, it shouldn’t take me and Babel too long to break whatever encryption there is.”

Twilight gave him a nod as she began to focus her magic into the device, working her way through the magical seal.

Strawell walked confidently down the Palace hallway, her face set in her natural stern expression. Everyone she passed turned their heads from her, unable to hold her gaze even for a second.

She ignored everyone, keeping her mind focused on what she’d come here to do.

Once she reached the correct door, she pushed through it without hesitation.

“Chief Strawell?” a servant asked in surprise as she walked further into the room, “why are you in the Apostles' living quarters?”

“I am looking into something regarding Val,” she stated, barely giving the servant a glance as she walked towards the door on the other side of the large room labeled ‘Val’.

“Oh,” the servant said quietly, “Master Val’s secretary is inside cleaning, he’ll be able to help you with anything you need.”

Without any further acknowledgement, she stepped up to Val’s door and pushed it open. Inside she saw a lot of packed boxes and a red stallion in a tan turtleneck rushing around.

She didn’t say anything as she walked in, eyes scanning the room carefully.

“Chief Strawell!” the stallion yelped as he started to run past her, tripping over himself and falling onto the ground before her.

“I assume you’re the one who came to the Inquisitor's headquarters looking for me?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Erm,” he began, looking around the room, appearing very nervous. She knew why; if Champion was here, he could easily hear anything they say out loud. “Yes, Ma’am, I… had a few questions, was all…”

Strawell could clearly see he wanted to say more, but was smart enough not to speak out loud. So instead he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote on it, folding it and putting it in an envelope. She watched him closely, but remained silent.

Once he was done he handed it to her and put on a forced smile, “sorry to make you come all the way down here, Chief. But Val was the one who needed you, and within him dead…”

“I understand,” she said flatly as she did an about face and left the room without another word. She did not speak to another person as she walked through the Palace, remaining stoic all the way till she was out on the streets beyond the front gates.

She kept up her confident pace all the way back to the Inquisitor's Canterlot Headquarters, acting like everything was normal just in case she was being watched. Which she knew was a real possibility with recent events.

Once she was safely back in her office she sat down and pulled out the envelope. Carefully she ripped it open and flipped open the note within.

‘Strawell, meet me in New Ponyville at the collapsed Hero’s Monument in four hours.’

After reading the note she crumbled it up and tossed it into her metal trash can. She then threw a small charm into it, causing a little flash that instantly disintegrated all the paper within the trash can.

With that, she walked for her door yet again, heading for the Magic Department so she could be teleported to New Ponyville.

“How’s it coming along?” Nova asked as she stepped into the Dimensional Monitoring chamber of the Enforcer’s Order Hall. 

“Not well,” Bronwyn answered as she ran her hands through the floating images before herself, watching as the hovering screens around her changed with each input. “Finding a different version of Lance is proving… difficult.”

“What of the one named Giro? The one who helped them all those years ago when Ponyville was originally destroyed?” Nova asked, stepping up next to the other woman.

“His dimension is dead now,” she answered grimly. “I don’t know how, but there is not a single living thing within that dimension. So I’m having to look elsewhere.”

“That does not bode well,” the mare muttered, shaking her head as she watched the other woman work.

“It does not,” she agreed solemnly. “To make matters worse, all other alternate timelines are either gone, or on lock down.”

“What does that mean exactly, on lock down?”

“Well,” Bronwyn began, still swiping through images, “it can mean a lot of things. But usually it means an outside force has come in and closed it down for whatever reason. In the past it would have been the Central Dimension, but with them gone, that kind of duty falls to the UAD. As for why they’ve gone in and locked down these specific dimensions and timelines, I’d never be able to tell you.”

Nova just rubbed her chin, shaking her head. None of this was looking good for them at this point.

“To add to the growing list of despair,” Bronwyn continued, “for our plans to work, we need an alternate Lance who is very close to our Lance in terms of progression. A.K.A. a Lance who has gone through at least most of the trials and tribulations ours has gone through. And there’s only two I’ve found. The one named Giro, who is gone now, and another who is in a locked dimension.”

“Can we break the lock?” Nova asked curiously.

Bronwyn gave a nod, “we can, but it’ll take a few hours, and almost all of the Ego Rubies we have in storage. But we need to be sure, because if this is the wrong kind of Lance, then we’ve wasted our one shot at finding the others.”

“I trust you to figure this out,” Nova said with confidence, getting a smile in return.

“Well let me check into the available info then,” Bronwyn said as she opened up a menu and began to read through everything. “Hm… so this version of Lance seems to be a lot more… dominate. They’ve cleared all the threats in their world a lot earlier than our Lance has, and not only that, they even faced a UAD being similar to the Watcher. The Observer. And it looks like,” she read a few more things quickly, “huh, they broke out of the false dimension on their own within a few months of being sent there by their version of the Watcher. The only difference is after defeating the Observer, they themselves tried to reset the Dimension to save their friends, but all they achieved was locking their dimension down.”

“Sounds like a Lance kind of move,” Nova confirmed.

“Should I focus on them?” Bronwyn asked, getting a nod from the mare.

“When you’re ready to pull them, let me know,” Nova said as she turned to leave.

“Can do,” Bronwyn said as she went back to work, “just know, we’ll have to summon them while on Equestria, otherwise it will not work.”

“That’s not ideal,” Nova muttered, not liking the idea of risking Champion finding them while they summon this Lance, but if they didn’t have a choice then she’d have to just make sure they took precautions.

“Once you’re done, we’ll summon them at night, just to be safe,” she finally said as she continued on her way.

If this worked, then this new Lance they’re bringing in will be able to be used to find the Bronies that have been taken. They just have to hope they’re all still alive.

“Finished,” Twilight said as she sat back, letting out a sigh as she rubbed her forehead.

Nightstreak jumped up and started to walk over to take the device from her, but Babel suddenly jumped up and snatched it from Twilight’s magical hold.

“Ooo, our turn!” Babel exclaimed happily as she flipped open the console and began to type away like a mad mare.

“Babel, don’t just start messing with it!” Nightstreak yelped, rushing over to try and stop her, but she just turned her back to him, hooves flying across the keyboard. “We need to run a few tests and diagnostics to make sure we know what we’re dealing with here!”

“Oh it’s just a simple government encryption that they use on all their computers and networks,” she said joyfully, leaning her head backwards so she could look at him, a wide smile on her face. “I break these all the time for fun!”

This caused Nightstreak to groan as he relented and sat down next to her, “okay yeah, just don’t hog it all to yourself. I’m just as capable, if not more so, than you with computers.”

“Sure, Nighty!” she giggled, scooting so he could have access to the keyboard and screen as well. 

He raised an eyebrow at what she was doing, as she was already far into the system, much further than he’d be after a few hours of working. “Eh… do your thing, Babel,” he said reluctantly.

“Okay!” she laughed as she pulled it back to herself and went back to work, her tongue hanging out of her mouth as she concentrated on her work.

Twilight just smiled as she stood up and walked over to the couch, planning to get some more sleep while they worked on the computer.

“Ooo, I’ll have this done in a few hours!” Babel announced proudly as her hooves clacked crazily against the keyboard. “Maybe sooner!”

Nightstreak just watched in amazement as she navigated her way through the systems, moving much faster than he could. Her mind just worked so much differently than his it appears, giving her a clear edge.

Strawell approached the destroyed Hero’s Monument, which once depicted the old hero’s of this world. The Brony known as Lance Greenfield and his ragtag group of friends. The monument had been torn down after Champion revealed their sins, so now all that was left were makeshift signs denouncing Bronies and the previous heroes. 

It did not take her long to see Val’s secretary standing by the ruined monument, looking extremely nervous and out of place with how they were acting.

“You need to relax,” she said sternly as she stepped up to him, startling him as he hadn’t seen her approaching.

“Yeah, I’m trying,” he said, eyes darting around the area.

“No one followed either of us, I can assure you,” she said confidently, knowing the only person who could be spying on them was Champion himself, and she knew for a fact he was in Manehattan dealing with some kind of government issue.

“Okay,” he muttered, turning to her and taking a deep breath. “Okay um, I know you’ll probably arrest me after this conversation, but you’re the only person I can turn to.”

“Start with your name,” she said when he went silent for a moment.

“Erm…” he looked around nervously, “Red Storm…”

“Hm, Red Storm, the same Red Storm who worked with Val in the past?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, that’s me,” he said with a sigh, shaking his head, “but I’m not like that anymore. I dropped that life almost twenty years ago when Val was imprisoned the last time. I’ve changed, I swear.”

“That’s irrelevant to why we are here,” she said a bit coldly, wanting him to get to the point.

“Sorry,” he muttered, “I’m just worried about my wife and daughter. Val didn’t know I’d started a family and when he came for me, he made me return to his side, so I sent my family away somewhere safe.”

Strawell nodded along, waiting for him to get to the point of this meeting.

“I’d come to you originally because I wanted to give you this,” he said as he pulled out a few folders from his saddlebags. 

“And these are?” she asked as she took them, putting them away in her pocket dimension so she could view them later.

“The truth,” he said simply. “I’m not going along with any of this willingly, and I just want my daughter to be safe.”

“Why would she not be safe?” Strawell asked as she took note of the sweat starting to form on his brow.

“LIke I said, you’d arrest me after this,” he said quietly. “My wife is a Brony.”

“Okay,” Strawell replied, the thought of arresting him indeed crossed her mind. “I will not arrest you,” she suddenly stated, catching him off guard.

“Oh… I wasn’t expecting th-”

“If,” she interrupted, eyes locked with his, “you answer a few questions.”

“Erm, of course… What do you need to know?” he asked, clearly very unsure of where this was going.

Her eyes darted around the area once, confirming they were alone with no prying eyes, “were the Apostles really under Brony control from the very beginning?”

This caused him to frown, but he shook his head, “no I can personally tell you Val for sure has never been under anyone's control. I can’t be sure of the others, but I can tell you I do not think they were. Especially Nightmare…”

She gave a sharp nod before continuing, “who killed the Princesses?”

This caused Red Storm to appear very uncomfortable, and he went silent.

“Tell me, now,” she demanded sharply.

“Champion,” he finally said after a long pause, causing Strawell to close her eyes as her body tensed.

“I was afraid you’d say that,” she said calmly as she opened her eyes again. “Do you have proof of this?”

“No…” he answered quietly, “I’ve just over heard things. I know Val said Champion was a fool for how he handled the take over, saying they should’ve imprisoned the Princesses instead.”

“I’m going to need proof if I’m going to do anything about this,” she said as she stared him down.

“We can pull my memories of them talking if that’ll-”

“No,” she interrupted, shaking her head, “you know memories are dismissible in court due to them easily being manipulated by magic. I’ll need solid evidence, like what you’ve given me today in these folders.”

He shied away from her a bit, “the folders I gave you have a lot of information in them, but none of it talks about the Princesses, just that the Apostles are evil and that Lilith is keeping the captured Bronies to herself. You just need to read the folders, it’s the best I can do.”

She let out a deep sigh, “okay. Now tell me, what were you hoping to gain by giving me this?”

“I just want this all to end,” he admitted with a sigh, “my daughter deserves to grow up in a world that doesn’t hate her for what she is.”

“If this is all true, then that applies to a lot of others as well,” she stated, getting a nod from him. 

“I know, but I have a simple request,” he said as he pulled out a small photo. “If something happens to me, can you let my family know I did my best to make things right?”

She stared at him for a long moment before giving a sharp nod, causing him to sigh in relief.

“Thank you, Chief Strawell,” he then handed her the photo, “this is the only picture I have of her after my house was destroyed in the fighting. A stain kind of covers my wife, but you’ll be able to find my daughter. She’ll stand out wherever she’s at, trust me.”

Strawell took the picture, raising an eyebrow as she stared at it. “I will do as you ask, if something happens to you.”

He glanced around again, “if you need me again, just try and not come to the Palace, people were asking a lot of questions about why you were there.”

“I will keep that in mind,” she said simply as she took a step back, “if that is all, I shall take my leave.”

“Thank you again, Chief,” he said as she turned to leave. “For everything you’re doing.”

“It’s my duty,” she answered simply as she walked away, leaving him alone by the ruined monument.

“Done!” Babel suddenly screamed out, scaring both Nightstreak and Twilight as they jumped up, having been asleep before this.

“You’re done?” Nightstreak asked as he stepped over, seeing that the screen now displayed the desktop with a few folders and applications.

“Mhm!” Babel said proudly, moving the cursor to an application labeled ‘New Ponyville CCTV’.

“Don’t click it,” Twilight said as she stepped over, placing a hoof on Babel’s shoulder. “Nova will want to be the one to go through everything herself.”

“Oh yeah yeah!” the young mare said as she shook her head quickly. 

With that, Twilight used her magic to lift her communication device and dialed in Nova’s number.

After a short pause, there was a pop as a connection was made.

“Hello, Twilight, any news on the footage?” Nova asked, sounding a bit worked up.

“We have it,” Twilight answered.

“You do?!” Nova all but yelled, followed by her clearing her throat. “Good, good. Bring it to my house and I’ll go over it soon…”

“Is everything okay?” Twilight asked, noticing the tone of the other mare's voice.

“Yes, we’re just getting ready for a mission,” she answered, then after a short pause, “actually, can you and Nightstreak come to the command center? We’re about to head to Equestria to summon a different version of Lance, and I’m sure you’ll want to be there.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide as she heard this, “you’re summoning Giro?”

“No, I’m afraid it’s a different version of Lance,” Nova answered, not going into details. 

She thought for a moment before giving an answer, “we’ll be there shortly.”

As she hung up, she realized Babel was right next to her ear, clearly listening to the conversation.

“Babel!” she said sternly as she turned on the now overly excited mare.

“You’re all bringing in a different version of Lance?! Similar to Giro, but not him?!” she asked, speaking so fast they could barely understand her. “Can I come?! Please?!”

The two looked at each other, both looking very unsure.

“It’ll be dangerous, we have to go back to Equestria apparently,” Twilight warned, but this did nothing to deter the young mare.

“I’ll be fine!” she yelled as she rushed to her supplies, starting to pack everything away as quickly as she could. “Ooo, I hope this Lance has seen some crazy stuff!” she then went wide eyed as she let out a gasp, “what if the shipping happened differently in their world?! Oh I’ll get to make a whole new list! Oh we have to hurry and get there!” 

“There’s no stopping her now,” Nightstreak mumbled, getting a nod from Twilight as they watched the overly excited mare bounce around, gathering her things as she talked faster and faster.

Nova stepped through the portal first, wanting to make sure it was safe before the others followed. She scanned the area, seeing that there was not a living soul anywhere near them, as they had chosen a location far out in the forest.

Satisfied, she waved for the others to follow as she walked into the clearing.

“Oh this is so exciting!” the young tagalong Babel Yarn exclaimed as she walked out behind the members of Phantasm Troupe. 

“We’re not going to have to do any running, are we?” Babel asked as Twilight and Bronwyn walked out of the portal next, allowing it to snap closed behind them. “I really can’t run that far, I have really bad stamina. Also my glasses always fall off when-”

“No, we’re not doing any running,” Roxxy sighed as she answered her. She wasn’t that fond of Babel Yarn, but she didn’t have a problem with her either. According to Nightstreak, she was the sole reason they broke the encryption so fast, so they were willing to give her a chance.

“Okay good,” Babel said with a smile as she walked over to where Nova was and sat down on the ground, pulling out a few notebooks.

Nova stared at her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for Bronwyn to get ready to perform the summoning ritual.

“What do you have there, young one?” she asked, causing Babel to look up in excitement.

“My LTD notebooks! This new Lance will have SO much lore to share, and I need to write it all down!”

Nova couldn’t help but smile at the young mare as she gave a single nod, “that is fine. All I ask is that you allow us to work first, then you can ask them what ever you want. Is that fair?”

“That’s more than fair!” Babel laughed, smiling brightly up at Nova. 

With that, the Royal mare looked to Bronwyn, who was placing Ego Rubies down in a certain pattern on the ground.

“Anything we need to know here?” Dude asked as they all gathered around the woman as she worked.

“Yes,” Bronwyn answered, “when I summon this new Lance, they’ll probably be confused, so don’t crowd them.” 

Everyone’s eyes turned to Babel Yarn as she hummed to herself, tilting side to side as she waited for the new Lance to appear. 

“We’ll try our best to contain ourselves,” Roxxy answered dryly, shaking her head.

Once Bronwyn finished placing down all the Ego Rubies, she took a step back and pulled out a new item, this one looking more like a large ceiling fan than anything else.

“Everyone,” she announced as she pulled a cord on the device, causing it to spin, “take a few steps back.”

As the group stepped back, she tossed the spinning device into the air, where it hovered above the Ego Rubies, spinning faster and faster.

The Rubies began to glow brightly as they all seemed to reach up and connect to the device, feeding their Ego directly into it. Everything sped up as the device spun so fast it looked to become just a stationary solid object.

Then, after a few moments the area around the device exploded in a bright light, causing everyone to look away. When it cleared, they all looked back, eyes going wide at what they were seeing.

“No way!” Babel exclaimed as she began to make notes in her book, “totally unexpected outcome!”